Train Sim World Screenshot Competition – Week 3

I’ve been given a few Steam keys for the upcoming Train Sim World: CSX Heavy Haul by Dovetail Games and so I’m going to run some competitions over the next few weeks to give them away!

Here’s how it will work:

I want you to take a screenshot from Train Simulator (not Train Sim World), the best screenshot you’ve ever taken and then send it to me. Each week I’ll announce a theme for the screenshot on each Monday, and then on Friday’s stream, I’ll announce the winner!

The winner will receive their key via Twitch messaging once Train Sim World: CSX Heavy Haul is out. The top three screenshots from each week may be added to my screenshot rotation that’s shown to everyone viewing the stream while I’m counting down the start of the stream, changing route or on the end-of-stream page (i.e. those shots will go on all three pages).

Week Three: The View from Inside

Entries close on 10th February 12 noon UK time.

This time the theme is the view from inside the train. Most screenshots I see are from the outside looking in, with even the most scenic images actually being at least as much about the train in the view. In this week’s competition I want to turn that on its head, so this time I’m looking for screenshots from inside the train, whether you’re in the cab, the passenger view of a coach or even in a brake van! There are some stunning views to be had from the perspective of the railway employee or rider. Interior views provide a nice opportunity to frame a great scenic shot with the window that you’re looking out of for example. Shots that have extreme differences in near and far can also be very interesting – so having part of the interior itself visible while having something a great distance away as well can make for an interesting shot.

If you want to use something like TrackIR or TrackHat to be able to put your camera into unusual places, that’s completely acceptable, and if you know how to modify the camera files in the game to move it around then that’s fine too.

Maybe you’ve got other ideas – I hope you do, I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Please make the subject something clear to me that it’s for the competition, the exact wording isn’t entirely important but if I miss your email for any reason that’s tough luck – so make it easy for me to see 🙂

Here are the rules:

Only one screenshot per week. If you send more than one, I’ll randomly drop others and you may not get the one you want being considered. This rule is to stop people spamming me with lots of screenshots. Take your time, send me the one you want to submit, you don’t need to submit early; you can leave it until the end if you wish (as long as it’s before the deadline), find the screenshot that is the best you can do and send that one.

Screenshots can be from a scenario, they can be from a free roam, you can specifically set the scene out in any way you wish. As long as it’s all done in-game, that’s what matters.

Throughout the entire competition, all screenshots must feature only content from Steam DLC. This is for licensing reasons, I can’t include your shot or show your shot on the stream if there’s unlicensed content and the simplest way for me to know it’s licensed is that it’s all come from Steam. Note that you can use a route that you’ve made or modified yourself as long as all the primary assets are from steam – if you’ve used some bushes or track from freeware or non-steam content that’s not a problem, however.

You must not edit the image other than cropping because I like to show shots in an honest form as they are straight out of the game. I also want to see your skills in finding the right moments and capturing them in the shot rather than how you can smarten up the image with your elite Photoshop skills. Cropping, however is fine. Please do not put any logos or names etc on the images, this counts as editing. If your screenshot is a winner and eligible to go on the slideshow, you will be welcome to send me a version that has your logo/name on it if you wish.

Screenshots can be any resolution, any size. To work well in my slideshow rotation they really need to be 16:9 preferably they also should be 1920×1080 – if your shots are super wide or super tall, they’re going to look super-silly in my screenshot slideshow, to be honest. If you don’t want to limit yourself to this, any resolution is acceptable to be eligible to win the key, but if it’s not suitable to fit onto the slideshows it may not make it into them. Similarly, if your images are low resolution, they’re going to look blocky and unpleasant by the time they’ve been stretched to fit the stream.

Related to the above, I reserve the right not to include one or more winning screenshots on the slideshows, but I am certainly hoping to include as many as possible.

Entries submitted after the posted closing date and time may not be included and will not be rolled into the next week, though you are free to submit the same shot again if you wish.

In all screenshots, what I’m going to be looking at is the composition of the shot. What makes this shot stand out? Does it look realistic? How is the lighting? How much effort has been taken in creating the screenshot? What is the framing like (i.e. where is the subject, is it clear what the subject is etc.). Any natural borders or symmetry? It doesn’t mean that all these have to be taken into account, you could have a winner without any of it – but these are the kinds of areas I’m using to help me review your shots – so take your time, try some ideas out and perhaps even read some railway photography blogs or look at railway photography magazines and articles to see what you like about your favourite shots and then learn from that.

To be clear – screenshots are to be from Train Simulator 2017. They are not expected to be somehow taken in Train Sim World.